Wednesday 15 April 2015

Recipe for Durban Bunny Chow

Durban, South Africa

This curry recipe came from Grey Street in Durban, and was traditionally made not of bunnies, but mutton. During the Great Depression, all races in Durban, South Africa, went hungry like everyone else.

People then discovered that the cheapest curry they could buy (for a quarter penny) was made by a vegetarian Indian caste known in Durban slang as the Bania. It was made from dried sugar beans. One child asked the seller to put the bean curry in a quarter loaf of hollowed-out brand. He then used the bread he had taken out as a sort of eating utensil.

Recipe for Durban Bunny Chow

You might be wondering, how did “Durban Bunny Chow” get its name? Well, Chinese food was called “chow.” Somehow the two words came together: Bania Chow. In time it simply became known as Bunny Chow.
I know there are many South African expats in London and the UK and this is one particularly for them.  I despaired of ever being able to buy the right spices to make a ‘real’ curry in Ireland until I found a Pakistani whole food shop, and they had everything I needed.
It always reminds me of my youth, when after a night of serious clubbing we would all congregate after midnight at the Cuban Hat Drive in roadhouse on Durban beachfront for Pie, Curry gravy and Chips – and boy, that curry g ravy had us breathing fire.  We had to cool off afterward with a double-thick chocolate milkshake.  This is not nearly so hot – so don’t panic…

Durban Bunny Chow

PREP TIME : 20 mins
COOKING TIME:  2 hours or until the beef is tender
Ingredients

*all these can be found in a Biryani mix or Masala mix packet and it looks like a packet of mixed  seeds, sticks and leaves. This is the cheapest way to buy them – keep the balance in an airtight jar for future.
 
Durban Chow